AMD cuts Athlon prices

NEW DELHI: Having acquired ATI Technologies on Monday, microprocessor company AMD has quietly, but swiftly, slashed prices of certain products, some by over 50 percent.

The company cut the prices of its dual-core Athlon 64 X2 5000+ (socket AM2 only) to $301 from $696; and Athlon 64 X2 4600+ (socket AM2 and 939) by 57 percent to $240 from $558. The prices of 64-bit Opteron were, however, not touched.

The move is likely to become globally applicable in the next few days to come, leading to good days ahead for those planning to buy cheaper computers, but bad for the health of the microprocessor companies Intel and AMD.

With PC sales steadily falling worldwide except in booming markets like India and China, prices of low-end processors are likely to come under pressure, analysts feel. Microprocessor major Intel is expected to react to AMD's pricing step soon, a move that will put the margins of both rivals on the low-end volume processors under further pressure.